The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed a private bank to disclose the total funds lying in three frozen bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) amid a dispute between rival factions of the party over their operation.
Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya ordered the bank to place the details of the corpus in the three accounts before the court by July 7. The matter has been scheduled for further hearing on July 8.
Court Seeks Police Records
The court also permitted the Bidhannagar Police to place before it the records relating to the complaint and the investigation that resulted in the registration of an FIR.
Appearing for the police, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urged the court not to pass any interim order for a few days, stating that the investigation had already progressed. He submitted that the investigating agency had gathered material indicating that funds were allegedly being siphoned off and said those records would be produced before the court.
Mehta told the court that the central issue was determining which of the two rival factions of the Trinamool Congress was entitled to operate the bank accounts.
Court Considers Interim Arrangement
During the hearing, Justice Bhattacharyya observed that the court was considering whether the three accounts could be operated by joint special officers, who would be retired judges of the High Court, while the petition remains pending.
The court also noted that the FIR had been registered on June 18 at 6 pm and that the bank informed the Mamata Banerjee-led faction the following day that the accounts had been placed under a debit freeze.
Questioning the sequence of events, Justice Bhattacharyya asked what prima facie material had been available with the investigating agency and in what haste the accounts had been frozen.
In response, Mehta said the materials to be produced before the court could “shock the court’s conscience.”
Petitioner Alleges Political Paralysis
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Mamata Banerjee-led faction, argued that freezing the accounts had effectively paralysed the functioning of a political party.
He contended that preventing the party from accessing its funds raised issues concerning fundamental rights and disrupted a level playing field.
Singhvi further submitted that the complaint leading to the FIR was vague and lacked factual particulars sufficient to justify police action. He pointed out that the FIR was registered on the basis of that complaint and the bank accounts were frozen the very next day.
He acknowledged before the court that the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC had lost the Assembly elections and had witnessed defections, but argued that an electoral defeat could not justify the use of state machinery to disable the party’s functioning. He sought an interim order permitting debit operations in the accounts.
Maintainability Challenged
Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, representing the complainant, questioned the maintainability of the petition. He argued that the petitioner had no authority to seek access to the accounts because a new national committee of the party had already been constituted.
Kaul submitted that the complaint had been filed because there were allegations that one faction was attempting to carry out illegal financial transactions and route money through the accounts, potentially harming the party’s reputation. He said the police investigation was examining those allegations.
He also questioned the authority under which the petitioner claimed to represent the Trinamool Congress in light of the dispute between the rival factions.
Background
The debit operations of three Trinamool Congress bank accounts were frozen after complaints were lodged by rebel MLAs aligned with the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction. The complaints, submitted before the cyber crime police station of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, sought an investigation into the source of funds held in those accounts.
